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Circular decorative frame

Maker

Attributed to
(artist)
1695-1772

After
(artist)
1687-1761

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1740

Medium

graphite, pen and grey ink, brown wash on laid paper, with brown ink framing lines, laid down

Dimensions

Height: 16.8 cm
Width: 11.1 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3073

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

The precision and constraint of this drawing indicate a printmaker’s attempt to arrest the style of a painter, or designer, in order to reproduce it in print. In 1740 Huquier etched and published, after Lajoue, a set of 12 designs for frames encircling architectural capriccios, to which this frame is related, though it corresponds to none of the executed prints. Lajoue, the son of an architect, was an exponent of the Rococo, which introduced asymmetry into French art. The fully visualized design of this frame reveals subtle asymmetries in the treatment of the right and left sides: acanthus that curls differently, band-work is cut differently, and the crown, sprigs of laurel and branches of coral that appear on one side, are matched by no such extras on the other. Such licenses were not long tolerated. By the 1750s Lajoue’s novel and imaginative designs were completely discredited.

Provenance

Sotheby's (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Ornament by Design, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 23/04/2016-12/06/2016

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: Recto, lower left corner: fragment of scrollwork.

Inscription: Recto: lower left edge, graphite: “13 De la Joue”. Verso (backing sheet): upper centre, graphite: “De la joue”; right lower edge, graphite: “#4”; lower centre, graphite: “Jacques De Lajou / French 1687-1761 //”.

Collector's mark: none.

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